Jul 08, 2015
Smoke is in the air
This was at it’s worse Tuesday.
I’m sure most of you have read about the fires burning here in B.C. and in Saskatchewan. Both provinces are being hit very hard and have exceeded their annual fire fighting budget. Saskatchewan brought in soldiers yesterday from Alberta and gave them a basic few hour training course before sending them in to help. B.C. has now stated…………
In an effort to manage the situation – as well as an estimated 30 additional fires expected to break out daily – the province has put out a call to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre for an additional 290 personnel.
“We have requested additional help from CIFFC, the co-ordinating agency, for an 10 additional unit crews, 20 additional (initial attack) crews, 21 resource officers, an amphibious skimmer group and a land-based air tanker group,” said Isfeld.
So far 75 firefighters have arrived from Ontario to help us here and soon others are expected and from as far away as Australia. One of my nephew’s just graduated this past April from a Forestry Technology program as well as Wildfire Management and he is out there fighting these fires.
We are in one of those smoke filled valleys.
It is a tough and dirty job fighting these fires. We can all help. It is dry out there on the West Coast of the US and up in Alaska where they are having a a bad fire season due to the heat. So how can we help? Stop someone from throwing a glowing cigarette butt out the window. If you know someone who is a smoker ask them to be super careful. Several of our local fires have been human caused. Last night Colin had to go out after dark and was driving behind a golf cart when he saw a glowing butt tossed out of it. It landed next to a very dry cedar hedge. He followed the people and when they stopped he spoke with them but they denied being smokers. Hopefully they were embarrassed enough to not due it again. Butt out folks.
The province is under a total campfire ban. That includes those of you who have fire pits in your back yards.
Is is so hot and very dry that each camper that checks into our RV Park is being given a copy of the evacuation map from the site they will be staying at. We are so fortunate to have such an evacuation map. A few years ago after a fire in our park, volunteers along with the fire department created this route and it is invaluable as we are over 500 sites so if something happens it could be problematic.
Hot and dry and smoky.
It’s only July 8th, we have a long summer ahead of us.
You can see Colin seating at his desk at the top of the shot. The girls try everything they can to get his attention to come play with them 🙂
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WE HAD A FIRE BAN OVER THE MAY LONG WEEKEND BECAUSE OF THE FIRES AND THE DRYNESS AND WERE ALMOST PUT ON WATER RESTRICTIONS. THERE WERE VOLUNTARY RESTRICTIONS. THE SASK RIVER IS SO LOW AND FULL OF VISIBLE SAND BARS AND WE NOW HAVE “BEACHES”. I CAN SEE THIS RIGHT OUT MY WINDOW. AT THE MOMENT ALBERTA HAS 92 WILDFIRES AND HALIFAX FIRE FIGHTERS ARRIVED HERE LAST NIGHT. THE ENTIRE WEST IS FULL OF FIRES AND SMOKE. I COULDN’T GO OUTSIDE FOR 4 DAYS. OF THE 92 FIRES, 33 ARE OUT OF CONTROL, 19 BEING HELD AND 40 UNDER CONTROL WITH 0 EXTINGUISHED. ALMOST THE ENTIRE NORTH OF ALBERTA IS BURNING. SOME EVACUEES GOT TO GO HOME TODAY BUT THE AIR QUALITY IS HORRIBLE. JOHN WAS IN COLORADO THIS MORNING AND THE SMOKE THERE HAS BLOWN DOWN FROM WESTERN CANADA. SO I JUST WANTED TO LET YOU KNOW THAT IT ISN’T JUST BC AND SK ON FIRE. WE ARE AS WELL. PLUS WE ARE TAKING EVACUEES FROM NORTHERN SK IN THE BARRACKS AT COLD LAKE. AND WITH THE HEAT IN THE WEST, WE WILL PROBABLY HAVE ELECTRICAL STORMS WITH LIGHTENING AND THERE WILL BE MORE FIRES. CRAZY. SO DRY IN WESTERN NORTH AMERICA AND FLOODING ELSEWHERE. THEY NEED TO CATCH ALL THAT WATER AND PIPE IT TO THE WEST!!!!
HALIFAX ON THE WAY
http://globalnews.ca/news/2096896/nova-scotia-firefighters-head-west-to-help-in-alberta-wildfires/
FIRE STATUS
http://wildfire.alberta.ca/reports/sitrep.html
MAP OF WILDFIRES
http://wildfire.alberta.ca/wildfire-status/wildfire-status-map.aspx
I wondered about fires in Alberta but have seen nothing in the local news. Thanks for the in depth report.
***the above was posted by me as received in an email***
Contessa
Take care with the smoke. Down here in Texas our sky is filled with the smoke. Enjoy reading your blog.
Thanks for commenting all the way from Texas AJ. Sorry to hear that you are being affected by the smoke.
We have had such heavy smoke over Comox since Sunday – I just so wish it would rain. We are no longer allowed to water our lawns, the towns even shut off sprinkling in parks (Highest level water restriction). I am allowed to water shrubs and flowers and gardens – only after 7pm or 4-7am. It is kind of depressing. I never thought moving to the West Coast we would have such water issues – this dry weather sucks!
I know that it sucks but please hang in there. This is not the norm for BC. Those are some pretty strong watering restrictions. Having said that I just recently read that even some hiking trails have been closed to prevent the chance of fire.
It won’t last forever and soon ( I hope ) things will be back to normal.
Sorry for all the smoke there. Love the typical Dachsie pose…..love me, love my tummy…please.
I love that Colleen, ” love me, love my tummy”, but Caeli is shameless, she’ll roll onto her back anywhere and for anyone.
Sometimes you gotta go after the defenders, not so much to reprimand them but to save yourselves. Good on Colin!
Looks like a happy home life!
Last thing we want is for our home to go up in smoke.
The fires really are bad this year. I was reading that the air quality in Montana is really bad because of the smoke from all the fires. May be a good thing that we aren’t there yet since Jim has such bad lungs. Our Skitz (the red one) also will roll over on her back for anybody. Anything to get that belly rub.
Sandie I have a bad feeling that we are all in both the US and Canada going to be affected by smoke by the end of this summer. Our dogs are shameless 🙂
Yep, we know exactly how you feel with all the smoke. Ours was worse than that a week ago but has since cleared up somewhat even though the fires are still raging. People up in La Ronge are starting to lose their homes, many have been evacuated down to Regina and all the areas around. Sure hope they get some rain soon and the same with British Columbia.
Ruth
Yes I have also read that many of those people have also been evacuated to Cold Lake, Alberta. It must be very difficult to be out of your house and in a foreign environment and not know what has happened back home. I hope that that thick smoke does not return to your area.
Such a massive area effected, hope you get some rain soon.
Rain would be wonderful but with the heat that will also bring more lightening strikes 🙁
I wish I could send you some of our rain. We have more than enough to put out all the fires. Crops drowned and houses flooded here in Indiana.
Now that is a lot of rain. Why can’t nature share it all around?